Ng’s webcomics are snappy, short and whacky. His comics are native to Weibo (a Twitter-like service), his strips thrive as self-contained, single-page gags. While other cartoonists in China might publish 100+ page works on Douban (a Tumblr-like service) or one of the many webcomic portals (e.g. 有妖气), Ng focuses primarily on creating short comics on Weibo where he’s amassed an impressive 58,000+ followers. Works: All Phenomena is a collection of these webcomics from 2011 to 2013.

Absurd, slightly grotesque, and full of puns, each strip in Works: All Phenomena is brimming with energy, whether it’s the way a character rushes into battle or… to the toilet. Each comic is a self-contained gag, and the setting flits freely between contemporary, sci-fi, fantasy and wuxia (武侠). Ng’s humor shines when he combines both visual and verbal puns to set up a joke:

Translation, reading from right to left: Title) Wow, 1) Dear customer, please enjoy, 2) Waiter, your finger is deep into the soup, how am I supposed to eat that? 3) Dear customer, if you don’t want me to do this. Okay, then I can…

Almost every strip in Works: All Phenomena follows this fast and powerful rhythm. The stories move quickly, boldly, and there’s something ruthless and delightful in the way they execute their punchlines.

Ng’s stark and gritty illustration style is a perfect match for his stories. First of all, gags are clearly communicated with bold, black lines on sparse, white backgrounds. Then, their humor is enhanced by the seemingly-limitless repertoire of bizarre facial expressions that Ng’s characters possess. The combined effect is that there’s almost nothing subtle about Ng’s jokes, and they’re far stronger (and funnier) because of that.

Ng continues to create and publish webcomics on Weibo to this day, and he’s recently announced that a second collection of his comics may soon be published. While the number of verbal puns makes Works: All Phenomena an unlikely candidate for translation, perhaps a select collection of his equally-powerful visual gags will make it onto English-speaking shores one day.

Featured columns

Keyword search

Our authors

Jason Li is a designer, illustrator and consultant currently based in Hong Kong. Once upon a time, he studied engineering and ran a news site about fan translations of video games.

Tricia Wang observes how technology makes us human. Her ethnographic research follows youth and migrants as they process information and desire, remaking cities and rural areas.

Jin Ge aka Jingle is a writer, documentary filmmaker, and NGO organizer based in Shanghai. Jin does sociological research and produces multi-media content on the subjects of Internet subcultures and grass-root organizations in China. He is currently a senior design researcher at IDEO.

An Xiao Mina is a design strategist, new media artist and digital community builder in the Pearl River Delta. She uses technology to build and empower communities through design and artistic expression.

Graham Webster is a Beijing-based writer and analyst working at the intersection of politics, history, and information technology in China and East Asia. He believes technology and information design can reveal some of what what wonkdom can’t.

Christina Xu is an observer and organizer of communities, both online and off-. She is particularly interested in youth subcultures, cultural translation & syncretism, and user reappropriations of technology.

Lyn Jeffery is a cultural anthropologist and researcher at the Institute for the Future, a nonprofit group in Palo Alto, California. She studies new experiences enabled by connective technologies.